Tip for loose or tight stems

[Robert]

For loose or tight stems scrap a small amount of beeswax on the tenon. This will enable tight stems to fit easily and will tighten up loose stems. For loose stems it may require a little more beeswax depending on how loose it is.

You can find beeswax at most arts n crafts stores.

The nice thing about this is that beeswax can be removed at any time. It doesn’t harm the pipe and contrary as some believe it will not crack your shanks. I’ve used this for over 40 years and have never had a cracked shank.

Hope this helps,
Robert

[Mark McKay]

Hey Robert...I have one problem pipe out of all my pipes....A Pete that
has a stem very tight...I went to the craft store to get some
beeswax...all they had was huge blocks that would last me 500
years...ever try the freezer treatment????

[David Griffith]

Last time I was at the craft shop, they had beeswax in fingernail-sized
flakes in a packet containing maybe half a cup. That's what I bought
when I needed beeswax for pipe stems and bagpipe maintainence. I filled
a custard cup with some wax flakes, put it in a shallow pan of water,
and heated until it was melted. Cut the puck into quarters and each
quarter is the perfect size for my uses.

--
David Griffith
davidmy...@acm.org <--- Put my last name where it belongs

[Jim Beard]

On 12/17/2012 07:23 PM, Mark McKay wrote:
> Hey Robert...I have one problem pipe out of all my pipes....A Pete that
> has a stem very tight...

If a tight fit is the problem, beeswax is not the answer. Clean
the tenon and then scribble on it with a Nr 2 pencil. Or, use
any available source of graphite. If that will not do it, use
fine-grit sandpaper (300 grit wet-and-dry or higher) and remove
material a little at a time until you get a good fit.

> I went to the craft store to get some
> beeswax...all they had was huge blocks that would last me 500
> years...ever try the freezer treatment????

https://www.vtweb.com/pimopipecraft/tools.html

At the bottom of the page, there is a listing of yellow, white,
and carnauba waxes for $4.95. The yellow and white are both
beeswax, and the amount will last a pipesmoker for years. There
is a minimum order of $10.00, but you might pick up buffing
compound or some alcohol stain or something else to bring the
total up to an acceptable level.

The freezer treatment is one approach to getting a stuck stem
out, but do take care, especially when the shank/mortise is thin.

Fifteen minutes in the freezer will also convert much of the gas
in a butane lighter to liquid (boiling point is 31 degrees F) and
allow an easy fill, due to minimal back pressure. Bleeding the
lighter does much the same thing, as heat of vaporization bled
off will chill butane remaining in the tank to mostly liquid,
again reducing back pressure and improving the fill.

Cheers!

jim b.

--
UNIX is not user unfriendly; it merely
expects users to be computer-friendly.

[Robert]

Jim,

I usually respect your opinion but you are way off on this one. Beeswax isn't the answer but sanding down your tenon is?!?!? Graphite from pencils can be used as well as putting the pipe in the freezer but I'm talking about the least possible damage to the pipe and beeswax will last whereas graphite will need to be reapplied. I've tried both.

It's true that the arts n craft stores sometimes sell beeswax in large blocks but on the other hand they are dirt cheap.

Robert

[JtN©]

Oh yeah ... ASP is coming back to life, we have the beginning of a
disagreement and if we are lucky it might start into a flame war.

Get your best pipe folks and load it up with your favorite blend. Go
get your favorite beverage and come back and lite up ... just wait
folks, this is gonna be good. The Beeswax Battle of 2012 is on the
horizon.

Robert ... I to do not understand the beeswax on an already tight
fitting tenon. By rubbing it in beeswax your only adding a material
that will make a tight fitting joint even tighter. Now the question is
what is making that tenon tight? That is the question that needs to be
answered really before any fix can be done but beeswax is not a fix to
a tight tenon.

JtN ©2012

[Captain Pegleg]

Beeswax DOES work, as does graphite, but I agree with JtN that you need to judge a bit just HOW tight it is. One can crack a shank with forcing a tenon that's just too tight, but if it is a "bit" tight the above will work.
Years ago (many) I used to use a beeswax candle (not the typical candles sold now), but they are still available and are pretty cheap. Graphite is always around if you have a pencil.
Your mileage may vary, in stereo where available, void where prohibited by law...

[Jim Beard]

On 12/18/2012 12:03 AM, Robert wrote:
> On Monday, December 17, 2012 6:31:52 PM UTC-8, Jim Beard wrote:
>> On 12/17/2012 07:23 PM, Mark McKay wrote:
>>
>>> Hey Robert...I have one problem pipe out of all my pipes....A Pete that
>>> has a stem very tight...
>>
>> If a tight fit is the problem, beeswax is not the answer. Clean
>> the tenon and then scribble on it with a Nr 2 pencil. Or, use
>> any available source of graphite. If that will not do it, use
>> fine-grit sandpaper (300 grit wet-and-dry or higher) and remove
>> material a little at a time until you get a good fit.

>

> Jim,
>
> I usually respect your opinion but you are way off on this one.
> Beeswax isn't the answer but sanding down your tenon is?!?!? Graphite
> from pencils can be used as well as putting the pipe in the freezer
> but I'm talking about the least possible damage to the pipe and
> beeswax will last whereas graphite will need to be reapplied.
> I've tried both.

Beeswax is not the answer for a too-tight fit. It works great
for a fit that loosens up (I use it regularly), but beeswax soaks
into the wood of the mortise when warmed up by the smoke, and the
fit becomes even tighter. If the fit is too tight to start with,
that can make it more difficult or even almost impossible to
disassemble the pipe.

Graphite is the best lubricant for a too-tight fit. Scribbling
with a pencil is for most people the easiest way to do it, but
any form of graphite will work.

If graphite will not cure the problem, beeswax d*mn sure won't,
because it will make the fit tighter (albeit better lubricated)
and the alternative remedy is to take a little bit of material
off the tenon. Repeat, "a little bit of material" off the tenon.

If you have a strip of sandpaper maybe an inch wide, of 300-grit
wet-or-dry or higher, you can make a sort of loop of the
sandpaper at one end and hold that just above the loop with thumb
and forefinger. Then lay the tenon in the loop so it contacts
the sandpaper evenly, and turn it with very light pressure. That
will take off a little material.

Try for fit. If improved, but not enough, try graphite again and
see if that will do the job. If not, lather, rinse, repeat, each
time taking a very little amount of material off the tenon.

There is another way to loosen up the fit, but it is a
consequence of cleaning the pipe regularly with grain alcohol and
will happen automatically if you do that. Most who do not use
grain alcohol are not going to adopt it just to loosen up a tight
fit on a particular pipe.

Basically, grain alcohol is a strong dehydrating agent. Each
molecule of ethanol binds to six molecules of water, and that
loose bundle will evaporate more readily than water molecules
alone. The wood of the mortise dries out, shrinks, and the
mortise-tenon fit loosens. No special effort required.

The problem of course is that the mortise-tenon fit routinely
loosens, even if not too tight. I clean my pipes with grain
alcohol after every smoke, and I am well acquainted with this
effect of grain alcohol. My solution is regular use of beeswax,
to tighten the fit back up. Works for me.

If the issue is mortise-tenon fit that is too tight, if you clean
the pipe with grain alcohol that problem will self-correct. And
if you do not, the remedy is either graphite or remove a little
material.

[inf...@mindspring.com]

On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:23:49 -0800, mark...@webtv.net (Mark McKay)
wrote:

Mark,

If you do woodworking, you can get double duty out of the beeswax by
coating screws with it. Makes them *much* easier to drive. Just a
quick swipe of threads across the beeswax does the trick.

Dick

[t-boy]

My Daddy always had an almost-used bar of Ivory soap in his tool box
-- great for coating screws.
OT, but my $0.02.
T

[Ed Duncan]

******************************
OK JtN, thanx for suggesting I join the thread. I've used both #2 pencil, beeswax & gentle sanding. I don't know if cause all my pipes have lucite stems ('tho a few originally had vulcanite). I say whatever works for you. I don't have a "workshop", not really tool friendly ('tho I've been called a "tool" for many yrs) but haven't yet broken a stem or shank. Emphasise YET!

Ed (Duncan), Batavia, NY

[inf...@mindspring.com]

On Tue, 18 Dec 2012 10:46:13 -0500, t-boy <williamthall*@comcast.net>
wrote:

>My Daddy always had an almost-used bar of Ivory soap in his tool box
>-- great for coating screws.

Yup, that works too.

[Mickey]

On 12/18/2012 10:01 AM, Ed Duncan wrote:
> On Tuesday, December 18, 2012 10:46:13 AM UTC-5, t-boy wrote:
>> My Daddy always had an almost-used bar of Ivory soap in his tool box
>>
>> -- great for coating screws.
>>
>> OT, but my $0.02.
>>

Wouldn't that give everything that you smoke in that pipe a "Lakeland
Flavor"? <g>

[Bill Burney]

One thing I've never understood about loose/tight stems: I've been told (maybe in the ASP FAQ?) that an old, disused pipe would likely have a loose stem because the wood of the shank has dried out and shrunk. The remedy is supposed to be to smoke the pipe until the shank expands to normal size (from moisture) and the stem will be tight again.

This sounds reasonable, but if you look at it another way, it is not. Mechanics often loosen a bolt by heating the nut with a torch, expanding the metal which makes the nut larger than the bolt. If the hole in a nut gets larger when it expands, wouldn't the mortise in a pipe get larger as the wood expands? Seems like the stem should fit tighter in a "dry" tenon than in a "wet" one.

It's also likely that I misunderstood the information I was originally given. Anyone hear this before?

Bill "maybe it was the voices in my head" Burney

[Mark McKay]

OK guys...I took the offending Pete out of the box and sock to find the
stem stuck....not wanting to ruin a pair of vise grips on it I put it in
the frezzer for 5 minutes....after this the stem came out...I let stem
and pipe get back to room temp....penciled the tenon and seems to be
fine now....as I only smoke this pipe once a month this will be my
remedy....thanks for all the imput....EggNog in a Laughing Bac
meer....cold beer on the side.....Cheers......:)

[Jim Beard]

The subtle point is that mortise wood expands in all directions.
Some of it expands toward the centerline of the smoke channel and
thereby tightens the fit, some expands outward from the mortise
(irrelevent to tightness of fit), and some of it expands
lengthwise and makes the mortise a tiny tiny bit longer (but I
don't think the change is enough for me to be able to measure
it). Some also expands at a tangent to the interior/exterior of
the mortise at 90 degrees to the axial direction of the mortise,
but this seems to be small enough to not be noticeable.

This type of expansion is true for both water soaked into the
mortise wood, and beeswax soaked into the mortise wood.

Separately, voices like images seen and indeed all sensory
perception IS "in your head." The sensors may be ears, eyes,
heat or pressure sensors in the skin, or whatever but it is the
brain that interprets the output from the sensors and decides
what you hear, see, and feel.

The brain also stores all memories of things heard, seen and
felt, and those memories too are all "in your head." They may be
called up when least expected, and it may not be obvious that it
is memory or something created from memory (e.g. dreams, which
can be quite lifelike).

On the other hand, if you are hearing "voices" that are in
someone else's head, this could be a whole different kettle of
fish. Advertising that would likely get you a visit from a
clergyman (in olden times, an Inquisitor), a scientist with a
willingness to entertain the possibility of paranormal phenomena,
or a psychiatrist/psychologist. Yet, it might also be a
lucrative source of income as a mind-reader if you can control it.

[Bill Burney]

Jim,

The voices in my head tell me you're right about them, but they're not so sure about your wood expansion theory.

Bill "I don't trust 'em" Burney

[random]

Indeed when something is too big to go in the hole you don't make it
bigger. Beeswax is for loose tenons, not tight ones. If it's only a
little tight, graphite can do the trick. If it's tight enough that you
have to put the pipe in the freezer to get the stem out to begin with,
graphite is a good try. People who are not sure what they are doing
shouldn't go sanding on things, but if the tenon is "permanently tight"
then sandpaper is one way of reducing the tenon diameter; personally I
wouldn't use anything rougher than 600-grit though, rougher grades of
sandpaper can remove material quicker than you expect and surprise you
in the bad way.

The thing is though, it's important to understand what any problem
really is before you go fixing on it. Doing anything at all when the
mortise or tenon are not impeccably clean is asking for trouble. Then
it's useful to approach things with a little care... changes in humidity
do make wood swell or lose its swelling and that can change tenon
tightness significantly depending on the pipe. Pipes with a non-wood
mortise insert, or pipes with a delrin or equivalent tenon, are going to
be less subject to changes in tightness that come from changes in humidity.

In my opinion the mortise/tenon joint where the stem attaches to the
pipe is a potential problem for everyone involved, pipe owner and maker
alike. I think the ideal situation would be a high-precision stainless
steel bayonet connection. Personally I don't like doing the high
precision work over and over again, it's too easy to make small
mistakes. Screw attachment as with some meers is less than ideal
because once it's "screwed tight" the stem may be off-square by a few
degrees.

Whatever, your own pipes are your own pipes, just as your own car is
your own car; it just makes me cringe when I see someone who is about to
adjust the carburetor with a hammer.

[random]

I always found (find) that business difficult to understand. Bigger is
bigger regardless of shape. But metals are uniform and have no real
grain like wood does. And linear expansion is not the same as toroidial
expansion (like with a nut). And when you put a hot-wrench on something
the outside gets hot first, before the inside, which could be taken to
imply that the nut is going to expand before the bolt gets hot enough to
expand.

It's all pretty confusing for those of us whose minds work (or don't
work) in whichever ways. I'm not infinitely smart so I try to keep it
simple; what works, works, regardless of the details of the reasons it
works. Nothing is ever exactly the same as anything else. If you've
tried everything you can think of and nothing works, sit back and smoke
a bowl, or take a nap. <g>